The next Travel Myth Buster Series excuse I would like to address for not incorporating international travel into one’s life is:

To be honest, this doesn’t sound much like an excuse to me, but more like a great opportunity to add an incredibly fulfilling new component to your life. If you are anxious about traveling internationally because you never have before, I would say there is not time like the present to get started!

However, I do understand that taking that first step into international travel is a big one, so let me ease your anxiety a little…

There has never been a better time in history to travel: As the world grows “smaller” through technological advancements in transportation and communication, we have never been “closer” to our neighbors half way around the world. Despite new politics limiting immigration in a small minority of countries, on the global scale foreign countries and cultures are more accepting and open to outsiders than ever before. Global tourism is already an enormous industry, but still continues to grow offering us travelers an almost limitless array of travel options for all budgets, interests, and styles. There has never been a better time to get out and actually get to know that planet we are living on!

1. International airfares are dropping: New low-fare airlines are revolutionizing travel across Europe, Asia, and the United States. As demand increases by a new breed of global consumers in developing countries, these fares should drop even further.
2. The internet provides a bevy of resources for travelers: User run websites like Trip Advisor and Wiki Travel, are making site-specific travel information very easy to come by. Guidebooks such as Lonely Planet, Frommer’s, and Let’s Go, to name just a few, are more detailed than ever. You can even log onto online forums like Thorntree or BootsnAll and ask your travel questions to thousands of other travelers around the world. All this information is available at your fingertips, and can make the learning curve to international travel as steep or as gentle as you want to it.
3. It’s now much simpler to ease your way into travel: For better or worse, as the world becomes more globalized it also becomes more homogenized. This allows first-time travelers to ease their way into international travel. You certainly don’t have to begin your experience with a trek through rural Africa. Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and even developing nations such as China, India, Mexico, and Brazil offer the first time traveler amazing new culture and wonders to explore without giving up the lifestyle they have grown accustomed to back home. Even in poorer countries, if you stick to the larger cities, you can usually maintain the amenities and level of comfort you are used to, making the “culture shock” of new environment much easier to handle.

Instead of thinking of your lack of travel experience as an impediment, use it as motivation to get out and try something new! Start slow, do some research, and ease into the experience as I have recommended above, and you will likely begin to wonder how you ever lived without such an exciting and rewarding pursuit in your life!

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